10-05-27 The Misadventures of Miss Molly

A friend of mine contacted me last night and offered to take in Molly during our transition out of the townhouse. This is a HUGE help because we are always concerned that the cat may become an unintended hinderance to selling the house. And on top of that, Molly has been very lonely there without us. So we made arrangements for me to take her over to her new home this evening. While at work I got a message that they were going to show our house at 4, so I took the opportunity to run home early and get her out before the showing.

And that, my friends, is when the chaos began.

When we first adopted Molly we were given one of those cardboard animal boxes to transport her home. It worked great and so I stuck in on the shelf in Tim’s closet for future use. This afternoon I took it down. After I got everything Molly related removed from the house I turned my task to getting her in the box.

She had no idea what was coming as I scooped her up and placed/gently pushed/ urged her into the box. But she would have nothing to do with it, and as I got one side of the box secure, she escaped out the other.

So, I tried again. Since she had caught wind of my plan I actually had to chase her down to get her, but much to my delight I managed to get her in the box… for about 2.5 seconds when she squeezed out as I was closing it. Grrr. Apparently this was a two person job.

I contacted my next door neighbor and she came over and helped me. Within a couple of minutes, Molly was in the box and I was heading out the door. I had to drop by and pick up the kids on the way to delivering Molly, so we headed down the road. I was on a pretty twisty road, going about 40mph when I noticed that Molly was fighting hard to get out of her box. The problem was that her box was made of cardboard and it sounded like she was destroying it. Clearly she was protesting her situation. She whined and cried and scratched at the box walls. And as I rounded a particularly sharp corner she burst out of the box with a look of terror on her face.

Uh oh! I have a terrified kitty that’s ready to leap on me as I’m driving. There’s no way I’m getting into an accident because of this kitty so I find the closest turn off and pull over. In the meantime, Molly has extracted herself completely from the box and is clinging for dear life on the top of the passenger seat. I examine the box and see that it is destroyed. There’s no way to get her back into it. So now I have a dilemma. Do I continue my journey with a freaked out kitty perched on the seat, pick up the kids on time, and deliver aforementioned freaked out kitty to her new home, or do I count my losses and take her back to the townhouse. It occurred to me that my neighbor might have a better carrying case for her, and sure enough when I contacted her she said I could borrow one. So I turned around and headed down the windy road back to the house, Molly kitty screaming her protests from her perch.

When I pulled in, the neighbors helped me get her in the carrier and I was on my way again, only a few minutes behind schedule. The drop off went smoothly and I’ve received a few photos from her new home. She seems to be settling in very well, which makes us all very happy!

After dropping her off, I took the kids to the beach for a few hours. There was a film crew nearby that made their way to the beach after we had gotten on. The kids found it very fascinating to watch. I got to explain all the equipment to them and the kids asked me a bunch of questions. I kept them at a distance so they wouldn’t be in the way. We were there as the sun was setting, so we hurried home for dinner and homework.

Our day finished off pretty uneventfully, and that’s fine by me. I’m just so grateful that Molly has some new friends tonight!